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www.seekdiscipline.com

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www.ownership-possession.com

Blog

The Ownership Icons [2] allow people in the Ownership Subculture to show their involvement in the subculture, their status, and orientation. The icons were initially used by The Slave Register, but the graphics are now available here in a range of sizes. All of these designs and image files are copyrighted, but may be reproduced freely for commercial or non-commercial purposes without prior permission.

In creating the icons, I wanted a set of designs that would still be clear as tiny 16x16 icons on a web page, or blown up to 10 inches square on a T-shirt. They had to have the option of indicating gender, and whether the individual is an owner or owned. They also had to have a clear symbolism corresponding to their meaning (which makes them easier to remember), but without being obvious to vanilla by-passers in public.

Symbols for the planets have existed for hundreds of years, and Mars and Venus are used as a shorthand for male and female sexes in biology. To indicate sex in an ownership icon, we used the arrow (male) and cross (female) from these symbols. [1]

While there are symbols for male, female, gay, lesbian, trans and bi, there aren't accepted symbols for owners and for owned: no "hankie code" colour for D/s or M/s, and no symbol like the Triskelion that's used for BDSM. So the Ownership Icons were going to be largely new. 

The first question was how to indicate gender, since all the other designs would have to accommodate the gender symbol. Symbols for the planets have existed for hundreds of years, and Mars and Venus are used as shorthand for male and female sexes in biology. To simplify things, I chose to use only the arrow (male) and cross (female) from these symbols.

Since it's easier to design with square, symmetric symbols, I put the gender symbol inside each icon rather than sticking out, as in the Mars and Venus symbols. This meant I needed a set of "containers" for these symbols, showing owner or owned.

The symbols for owners, masters and mistresses use a shield to represent the head of the household, with an arrow or a cross to indicate their sex. [1]

I've used shields for master / mistress / owner, and that is an idea lili and I were discussing in the summer of 2005 (the shield seal added by TSR to the certificates in 2005 was part of that.) A shield reflects my thinking of a master as head of the household, and the whole set of associations with houses and aristocratic hierarchies. It's also unused within Ownership or BDSM imagery.

So I placed the gender symbol in the middle of a shield, and a blank shield can be used by people not want to indicate gender. This convention also allows heads of household to base personal designs on a shield (and the TS monogram and shield I use at the bottom of webpages is an example).

Owned slaves' and collared submissives' symbols consist of a circle, representing a collar, and the sex arrow or cross. [1]

For owned slaves / collared submissives, the basic symbol is a thick circle, surrounding the gender icon. This represents the collar, and is easy to distinguish in outline from the shield, even as a small icon. A collar is so universally part of D/s and M/s imagery that it's the obvious choice, and yet the circle is not at all obvious to outsiders, unlike some jewellery or designs which show realistic chain collars.

Again, the gender symbol is placed in the centre of the design, with a blank icon also provided, which doesn't indicate gender, and which can be the basis of personalised icons.

The symbols for free submissives place their sex's arrow or cross inside a broken square, representing an unlocked cage. [1]

For free submissives, I had to think a bit harder. A circle with a gap was one option (as an open collar), but its outline is very similar to the symbol for owned slaves: if you're looking at a small icon with details which are just on the edge of your eyesight, then that's not so good.

Instead, I put the gender icons inside broken squares, consisting of the corners with 4 gaps, one gap in the middle of each side. This represents an unlocked/open cage and ensures that the outline is different from the previous two types. For me, using a cage in the symbol suggests that a submissive seeking enslavement isn't really free: they're a prisoner of their unwanted freedom in many ways. (And if you want to think of new slaves being dragged out of a holding cage, auctioned off, and then collared, you're welcome to that too…).

The Collar Shield combines the symbols for owner and owned, and can be used to represent Ownership & Possession itself, and is the basis of the Ownership Flag. [1]

Once I'd put this set of icons together, I realised I could make a symbol for the Ownership Subculture itself by placing the circle on the shield, as the collar-shield. This design is also the basis of the Ownership Flag.

All of these designs and image files are copyright, but may be reproduced freely for commercial or non-commercial purposes without prior permission.

Background

• The Hanky Code

The Mars and Venus Symbols.

Archivist note: See also Handkerchief Codes on Wipipedia, The Hanky Code (Colors) on Closetprofessor, and Secret Codes on BDSMpedia

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Archivist note: Yahoo Groups is no longer available and was not found in archive.org

Footnote: [1] text is from Ownership Icons 
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150421094223/http://www.ownership-possession.com/icons]

Footnote: [2] Copyright text from icons-copyright

All of the Ownership Flag and Ownership Icons designs and image files published on http://www.ownership-possesion.com/flag and http://www.ownership-possession.com/icons are Copyright 2006 Tanos@tanos.org.uk

However, when used to represent relationships of ownership or possession these designs and image files may be reproduced freely for commercial or non-commercial purposes, without prior permission.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20120309164630/http://www.ownership-possession.com/icons-copyright]

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